News Archive - Page 78 of 145

One Voice rally in front of the National Museum of Natural History to shut down its primate breeding facility

One Voice rally in front of the National Museum of Natural History to shut down its primate breeding facility
05.10.2021
Paris
One Voice rally in front of the National Museum of Natural History to shut down its primate breeding facility for laboratories on October 9, 2021
Animal testing

On Saturday October 9 in Paris, One Voice is organizing a rally to demand the closure of the largest breeding facility for grey mouse lemurs for animal experimentation -that of the National Museum of Natural History. It will take place at Valhubert square from 1pm to 3pm, at the end of the Jardin des Plantes, facing the River Seine.

In our country, experiments are still carried out on primates. Worse still, France is Europe’s leading user of primates for laboratory purposes.

Five hundred grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus), tiny lemurs with big eyes, are bred in France for animal experimentation.

The National Museum of Natural History’s Brunoy facility (Essonne) is home to the world’s largest breeding facility for grey mouse lemurs, and offers its animals to scalpels. The Museum is even looking to expand!

So, once again, France stands out for its ferocious appetite for animal experimentation, on primates in particular, on the pretext that those ones are as easy to handle as mice, while sharing with humans a “more important heritage than conventional rodent models”. And it’s working hard to shine internationally in this domain.

Our article to elaborate on this topic (locations, experiments carried out, sources…) ;
Our petition to close the National Museum of Natural History’s breeding facility for grey mouse lemurs, calling for an end to deliveries to laboratories and a halt to tests on these little lemurs.

See the Facebook event

France, champion of animal experimentation: grey mouse lemurs in sight

France, champion of animal experimentation: grey mouse lemurs in sight
04.10.2021
France
France, champion of animal experimentation: grey mouse lemurs in sight
Animal testing

Researchers in France are still conducting experiments on primates. Specifically, in its branch in Brunoy (Essonne), the French National Museum of Natural History has the largest breeding centre for mouse lemurs in the world. The animals are kept purely to be cut up for science.

Photo: © Gerald Cubitt / Photoshot / Biosphoto

France is renowned for its culture, its intellectuals, its historic towns and villages and its beautiful landscapes… Take Brunoy, in Essonne, for example. Although tensions in some of the surrounding housing estates can sometimes lead to unrest, the centre of this residential suburb retains at least part of its historic heritage, with magnificent buildings and plenty of green space giving rise to its reputation and its charm.

A centre of excellence

This is the setting within which scientists from the National Museum of Natural History (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle – MNHN) have, for some fifty years, been carrying out specialist research in the fields of forest ecology and adaptive strategies of living organisms, on the site of the Petit Château, an 18th century mansion.

Primates destined for experiments

It is a fine programme – on paper! However, the walled grounds, now closed to the public, are currently home to the largest primate breeding centre in the world, a community of nearly 500 small lemurs. Their name in English is ‘grey mouse lemur’; in French ‘microcèbe mignon’, meaning ‘charming lemur’, while the Latin name is ‘microcebus murinus’. They are kept for use in animal experiments. Mixed teams of scientists from the MNHN, the CNRS and other research institutes really love these descendants of animals caught in Madagascar, particularly because their small size makes them as easy to handle as mice while they have ‘much more in common with humans than the classic rodent models’.

From observation to euthanasia

This represents a great opportunity for laboratory technicians, who subject them to batteries of tests. These include ‘simple’ behavioural studies, which nevertheless sometimes, as here, consist of leaving the animals in darkness or making days and nights shorter in order to reduce their lifetimes. However, other experiments can be much more invasive, as part of research on inflammation of the eyes, pancreatic lesions, or the development of tumours as part of ageing. Research in neuroscience, in particular on the structure of the brain, cognitive abilities and Alzheimer’s disease, causes terrible suffering to the subjects, which are usually put to sleep afterwards.

Ill-treatment before decapitation

One of the worst studies our team of scientists knows of focused on the ability of grey mouse lemurs to enter torpor to adapt to their environmental conditions. Apparently harmless on the face of it, in practice this study involved keeping individual animals in isolation without enough food for several days. They were then all decapitated and samples were taken from their corpses, frozen and sent to Canada. This is because the MNHN, not content with conducting its own experiments, also offers its ‘materials’ (in this case, lemurs) and its ‘services’ to scientific researchers throughout the world. It even has a website, called IBiSA, which offers ‘services and equipment’ useful to foreign laboratories keen on small lemurs.

An insatiable appetite

So, France is once again standing out as a result of its ferocious appetite for animal experiments, especially on primates. It makes every effort to increase its reputation in this respect at international level. The MNHN has even stated its ambition to renovate its premises and to take early action to extend its animal house to house 800 lemurs. There are more studies and more suffering to come… We have recently written three letters, to the President of the MNHN, the Director of the Essonne department DDPP [whose responsibilities include animal protection], and the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, asking them to disclose all documents relating to the MNHN centre for the breeding and use of animals for scientific research in Brunoy. A spotlight needs to be shone on what is happening there, and on the suffering of the grey mouse lemurs.

Sign the petition

Circuses supply skins and corpses to a tout-Paris taxidermist. Eye opening.

Circuses supply skins and corpses to a tout-Paris taxidermist. Eye opening.
28.09.2021
France
Circuses supply skins and corpses to a tout-Paris taxidermist. Eye opening.
Exploitation for shows

Fraud in identifying lions like Jon who are kept in circuses by the Gougeon family, suspicions of trafficking… after an inspection by the DDPP [the French Departmental Directorate for the Protection of Populations]which revealed these problems, One Voice investigated, from the Champs-Élysées to the Puces de Saint-Ouen where a well-established stuffed animal seller revealed to us how he obtains the corpses and skins that he sells on for tens of thousands of euros! Like Dorian…

The lion and tiger trade is a very fruitful business

Trafficking relating to wild animals is third worldwide after weapons and drugs. Now we know the rumours about circuses: babies that are born and replaced by others that are just as young (at the Parc Saint Léger and Parc Saint Paul), the lions that we are following who suddenly disappear (Sultan), or even the trainers who don’t officially carry out reproduction but keep a male that is “not in the same bloodline” or keep males and females in the same cages year-round (Mario Masson’s ten tigers in a lorry), and the record logs which are accidentally misplaced…

The starting point for our investigation…

This latest case is the starting point for the investigation, for which we are revealing the results today. In Spring 2021, a report carried out by the Rhône prefecture’s veterinary services states that, during their visit to Joseph Gougeon’s Nouveau Triomphe Circus, they observed that the formal notice from October 2019 has still not been respected: the number of lions being kept was higher than the maximum allowed, there were insufficient housing capabilities, the management of the medication storage was poor… as well as a failure to identify the lions, one of which wore Jon’s identification number, despite him having been taken away from Steve Gougeon since June 2020!

Delivery of a lion’s remains with an unlicenced taxidermist…

The report concludes with Gougeon’s statement to the Rhône prefecture: the remains of a dead lion have been entrusted to a taxidermist.

After verification by the prefecture, this taxidermist would not be authorised or approved under the European regulation establishing the health rules applicable to animal by-products and derived products not intended for human consumption.

We have therefore investigated… starting with the Nouveau Triomphe Circus. And we have appealed against the prefect’s decision.

The survey has led us to a dealer of stuffed animals

Our investigators visited the dealer of products deriving from captive wild animals. His shop on the Puces de Saint-Ouen is always open, unlike those on avenue Georges V, where Claudia Cardinale once posed in front of a stuffed polar bear. You are welcomed by a stuffed bear cub (the animal skins aren’t stuffed with straw but with polystyrene, a much more ‘natural’ process…) surrounded by hunting trophies as well as giraffe necks and sordid staged items such as a doe’s head made up with hair rollers…

These animals are from the circus!

Using the pretence of wanting to buy a lioness skin, then a lion skin, our investigators were able to obtain valuable information.

The boss boasts about being friends with the Gruss family and with Éric Bormann, an eponymous circus trainer who shot Mévy the young tigress in Paris, about having gone on safaris, and about having repeatedly let wild animals roam free at parties or even within the flea market… he implies that veterinarians can always justify the need to euthanise a big cat from the circus, before condemning the fact that the market is dwindling with the planned end for wild animals in circuses.

Our investigators relayed their experience: «The shop boss explained to us the lawful origin of the animals which, according to him, came from circuses. He explained to us that euthanising these wild big cats made selling their skins legal. If an animal shows aggressive behaviour, that’s enough for their death by euthanasia to be authorised.»

Dorian the circus lion photographed in the suburbs of South Lyon

Our investigators added: «The correspondence exchanged with him revealed that it is possible to have a wild big cat stuffed, choosing between male or female. In addition, he was reactive to us changing our minds and was always in a position where he could respond favourably to any further requests.»

In fact, during our negotiations, after receiving two photos of a lioness skin, our investigators received photographs of a lion, still alive, taken in a lorry. When we read the beginning of the email and saw him in the photographs, we said we had to save him at all costs. But the sentences that followed made it final. He was already dead.

We named him Dorian. He will never grow old. The poor cat is currently soaking in a tanning bath. He will be stuffed by mid-October, transformed into a decorative object at a price that allows the entire selling chain a great return on investment.

We are also very worried for the lions and lionesses from the Italiano Circus who are also in Gougeon’s hands. Because FreeLife informed us that the Italiano Circus is selling their lorries and their fun park. What will become of the animals? Will the lioness skin be Bébé, Bellone or Caroline’s? And the lion? Will it be Mandela or Nelson?

Muriel Arnal, One Voice Founding President states: «Dorian’s story and his look breaks my heart. It has reached the pinnacle of obscenity. As long as circuses are allowed to exploit animals, we will never lay down our arms»

What are parliamentarians waiting for to change the situation?

The bill on animal mistreatment under discussion at the Senate still does not provide for any monitoring of circus animals. At most, it envisions putting an end to animals roaming the streets, without any safeguarding or reinforcement of the protections that the ministerial decree is already sorely lacking.

The fact that it has been renamed by the reporter to make it say the opposite of its original intention is not insignificant.

Putting an end to roaming circuses without protecting the animals who have been locked up for life in cages in trucks or planning their retirement is far from enough! We have just brought to light serious irregularities and our investigation raises many questions about the trafficking of big cats in circuses. What are our representatives doing? Parliamentarians and ministers? Them doing nothing makes them accomplices.

We are filing a further complaint

Following our investigation, we filed a complaint to the Paris State Prosecutor on 28 September 2021 for the unauthorised ownership of a protected species and the exploitation of an establishment using animal by-products, which targets the taxidermist and the dealer (perhaps they are the same person), further to the complaint filed in August 2021, which targeted all those implicated in this network (circuses, trainers, the taxidermist, and the dealer… the investigation will tell us) for mistreatment and voluntary execution.

These captive big cats aren’t objects to be exploited. They must be protected! We will do everything in our power for circus animals. Dorian will always be in our hearts.

European Parliament votes in favour of a comprehensive phase-out of experiments on animals!

European Parliament votes in favour of a comprehensive phase-out of experiments on animals!
16.09.2021
European Union
European Parliament votes in favour of a comprehensive phase-out of experiments on animals!
Animal testing

MEPs call on the European Commission to draw up an action plan to speed up the reduction and replacement of animal experiments

Picture copyright: Md Hasnat Shahriar Shanto

Yesterday evening, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the European Commission to establish an EU-wide Action Plan for the active phase-out of the use of animals in experiments. MEPs specify that the plan should include milestones and targets to incentivise progress towards the reduction and replacement of animals with non-animal and human-based methods. The votes were clear: 667 in favour, 4 against and 16 abstentions.

The Parliament stressed that the Action Plan should not be the responsibility of a few but instead should be spearheaded by a high-level inter-service taskforce, involving all key Commission Directorates-General and EU Agencies, with the aim of working with Member States and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that changes happen across all sectors.

The need for preferential funding and training for non-animal methods across all EU research and innovation initiatives has also been recognised.

Nearly 10 million animals are used in invasive experiments in EU laboratories every year, including monkeys, dogs, cats, rabbits, mice and rats, a huge number of animals that has remained relatively unchanged in the last decade.

Whilst acknowledging existing EU initiatives, MEPs recognised that an active, coordinated approach for reduction and ultimately full replacement of animals has not been achieved.

By requiring an EU-wide action plan with an ambitious timeline, European parliamentarians want to see the phase-out of the use of animals in science driven and accelerated.

Eurogroup for Animals, Cruelty Free Europe which One Voice is the French representative, Humane Society International/Europe, the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments which One Voice is also taking part to, and PETA, representing over 100 organisations across Europe, have campaigned for the adoption of the resolution (One Voice wrote to every French MEP) and are now calling on the Commission to make it a priority.

Opinion polls show that ending animal experiments is a priority for EU citizens: nearly three quarters (72%) agree that the European Commission should set binding targets and deadlines to phase out testing on animals. This is echoed by the recently launched European Citizens’ Initiative European Citizens’ Initiative (europa.eu), which has already collected almost 120,000 signatures in less than three weeks.

Over one hundred members of the scientific community, as well as the European Consensus Platform on Alternatives, support the position, believing that an action plan can facilitate the transition to non-animal science through the definition of common priorities, allocation of funding and multidisciplinary and inter-service collaborations.

«The vote is an historic moment for the animal protection movement. Finally, the demand of European citizens for a concerted phase-out of animal experiments and a transition to human-relevant science has been heard. New advanced methods based on human biology are not only about protecting animals – they are also fundamental to achieving the Union’s goals of environmental protection and human health. With the Parliament’s vote today, we advance on all three fronts»commented the group of NGOs.

Tilly Metz MEP (Greens/EFA, LU), Chair of the Animals in Science working Group of the Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals, said: «The European Parliament understands that the time is right for this action plan because of the work that scientists have been doing to better understand the limitations of animal studies and the potential of non-animal models. There are no excuses to perpetuate the current level of reliance on animal experiments. It is clear that an ambitious phase-out plan, with clear milestones and achievable objectives, is the next step needed to start significantly reducing the use of animals in science.»

«It is now in the hands of the European Commission to establish this EU-wide Action Plan, and we expect the Commission will make this a high-level priority – Because if the Commission is serious about its commitments to EU citizens, it needs to start now the dialogue with all parties to effectively coordinate funding, education and milestones to accelerate the transition to non-animal science”» added Jytte Guteland MEP (S&D, SE).

«This action plan to phase out animal experiments is a win-win situation for humans, other animals, and the environment. The European Commission and Member States urgently need to increase their efforts to reduce, replace and end the use and misuse of animals for scientific purposes. Animal experiments are still used in many different areas of the Commission’s responsibilities, therefore a coherent approach is essential to achieve safety and sustainability, without animal testing. We need to use science. Not animals.» concluded Anja Hazekamp MEP (The Left, NL), Chairwoman of the Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals.

Notes:

The rapid emergence of advanced non-animal models such as organs-on-a-chip, pathway-base approaches and computer models offer immense opportunities to replace animals and improve research, but the number of animals used for scientific purposes continue to show a stand-still. The shortcomings of animal models are well documented, while advanced non-animal models are game-changing technologies. They have the potential to significantly improve our understanding of human diseases by producing data based on human biology, leading to considerable benefits for public health in terms of preventing and curing diseases. These new models can also accelerate the pace of chemical assessments and reduce the failure rate during drug development. In addition, advanced non-animal methods represent a new, but already booming market for innovative products and services with an annual growth rate of 12% per year. The Environmental Protection Agency of the USA has already committed to reduce its requests for, and funding of, mammal studies by 30 percent by 2025, and eliminate all mammal study requests and funding by 2035. This was followed by a strategic roadmap to move towards animal-free safety testing.

New unpublished images of CEDS dog farms in Mézilles!

New unpublished images of CEDS dog farms in Mézilles!
02.09.2021
Yonne
New unpublished images of CEDS dog farms in Mézilles!
Animal testing

We have received exclusive new images of dogs being bred and experimented on at the Breeding Centre for Biological Matter [Centre d’élevage des Souches (CEDS)] in Mézilles, Yonne. The whistle-blower wanted to highlight the way the golden retrievers and beagles were being detained in the biggest dog farms for laboratories in France. It’s a done deal: the farm recently acquired by Marshall BioResources (MBR) has not finished making a name for itself; we cannot give up on these dogs who are being surrendered to the scalpel.

A breeding centre where dogs are nothing but products

The numbers are indeed astronomical: there are more than 1500 there. The bitches are used for breeding for their entire lives, kept in tiny cells; the babies that are born are often sick and so many of them die prematurely; the young dogs that are separated from their mothers to live in a cage outside are left to battle in a survival of the fittest in unnatural packs and plagued by boredom. Eventually, they are experimented on directly on site or sent in lorries to laboratories where they lose their lives, not without having suffered and, for the majority of them, without ever having received a single affectionate gesture – it’s forbidden at the farm.

At the time of their visit in 2018, our specialist, veterinarian André Ménache, exchanged a few words with the CEDS veterinarian. According to her, at least at the time, she was cited as saying that “these dogs are different, they are no longer like pet dogs”.

Buying with lucrative prospects

The farm was bought in Spring 2021 by the sadly infamous American ‘bio resources’ brand (which means animals as products): Marshall BioResources, formerly Marshall Farms. The two farms for beagles destined for laboratories in Gannat and Mézilles in France therefore now belong to this giant which is centred more around profit than animal welfare. It’s a way for Marshall to evade customs charges and to avoid the costs of transporting the dogs in aircraft cargo and the commercial ‘losses’ linked to the animals which do not survive. According to the buyer,

«One in two Beagles used in Europe [in laboratories] is imported from the United States… The majority of these Beagles are Marshall Beagles. Currently, logistics are becoming a major issue since, under pressure from activists, the possibility of importing is becoming more and more difficult. And more and more costly.»

We had access to a one-off videoconference

The Carré couple, to whom the farm initially belonged and against whom we won the battle to ban their expansion, have consequently sold their flourishing farm to the highest bidder. During this one-off videoconference, to which we were given access, they are proud to showcase to their buyers: various clients, dog ‘users’, and those who use their on-site test service Bio 2M. They wanted to be reassuring: everything is going to continue as it was before at CEDS, or perhaps even intensify with Marshall, and just as much on the breeding side as on the experimentation side at Bio 2M. According to the head of Marshall Europe, located in Lyon:

«The idea throughout the acquisition, you will have gathered, is not only to sustain activity but to develop it… At present, I would say that the Mézilles site is one that is almost unique in the world, capable of combining canine breeding and a provision of services for studies related to canine activity… I don’t know of any facility which is organised in this way currently. And so the idea behind this is essentially to continue to, naturally, offer a provision of services which is currently available at Bio 2M, with the idea of being able to develop and diversify them.»

We are terrified for the dogs.

France is in fact one of the countries that tests on dogs the most in Europe. The numbers are increasing! But we will not let MBR torture them to death without saying anything, even with scientific backing; we have never done so, neither for them nor those who preceded them for over 20 years.

The dogs need you more than ever. Join us at the protests set for the first weekend of September! We are organising the protests in Auxerre and joining the efforts of Animal1st in Gannat!

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Poliakov trial: does France really protect wild animals?

Poliakov trial: does France really protect wild animals?
01.09.2021
France
Poliakov trial: does France really protect wild animals?
Exploitation for shows

The Poliakov trial took place on 12 May in Blois. The decision has just been made. The couple, who trained Micha, Bony and Glasha, Mina the Barbary macaque, rare birds, and ponies, were acquitted of all serious abuse and on all acts prior to 2019. Statute of limitations. Sacha Poliakov was bailed on a four-month suspended sentence. In other words, it’s now possible to mistreat in peace in France. And this is despite a bear being dead. We are appealing.

Does France really protect wild animals?

In light of the court decisions that are made in France in trial after trial in these types of cases, we have seen that the courts are more likely to sanction environmental offences. Is there an omerta (law of silence), or even a taboo, to allow wild animal keepers to mistreat? Because negligence is convicted when it comes to cats and dogs. We can see this happening in the case of Eliott the Lion at the Amar Circus, or in that of Jumbo, the hippopotamus who is kept by the circus that belongs to the violent Muller family. Each time that there is objective, conclusive evidence, the accused are ultimately only condemned for environmental infractions.

For the animals being kept by the Poliakovs, this absence of any sanction, which lived up to our expectations, happened despite the death of an animal which had maggots in its paws!

Ignorance of there being a culprit

The disregard for these animals – we have seen it already in inspections; officials don’t note down specific problems in the inspection reports – continues in the courtroom. This is extremely serious.

Animal protection laws which almost never apply

It is incomprehensible. It is as though the wild animals were willingly exploited, ours for the taking, and that therefore they did not suffer. As if we could do anything to them… and in fact, that’s what happens. The question can be asked: are these animals truly protected in our country? We are appealing the decision.

Translated from the French by Joely Justice

Sign for a Europe without animal testing

Sign for a Europe without animal testing
31.08.2021
Europe
Sign for a Europe without animal testing
Animal testing

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is calling for new animal testing on ingredients that have been safely used by consumers for many years. One Voice, as the French representative of Cruelty Free Europe, and the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments, is working together with all its partners and Eurogroup for Animals, HSI/Europe and PETA to end animal testing in the EU. We’ve joined forces with Dove, The Body Shop and over 100 animal protection organizations to sound a rallying call for consumers to sign the European Citizens’ Initiative. Muriel Arnal is part of this ECI Commitee. We need to get one million validated signatures. For the animals, there musn’t be any coming back.

Across Europe, millions of animals are used in science each year in tests that frequently inflict suffering, which can be severe, but seldom deliver on their main promise, which is better health for humans. They include mice, fish, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs and monkeys.

We need this suffering to end
– for the animals and for better medicine, better product safety and better environmental protection.

We want to see humane, human-relevant, animal-free science properly funded and fully utilised.

That’s why we need you to join us and sign a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) calling on the European Commission to:

Protect and strengthen the cosmetics animal testing ban
Transform EU chemicals regulation
Put forward a concrete plan to transition to non-animal science

Did you think that animal testing for cosmetics was already banned in the EU?

Tests on animals for cosmetic products and their ingredients were banned in Europe in 2009, and a ban on the sale of animal-tested cosmetics has been in place since 2013. We fought hard, with you and Members of the European Parliament, for those bans. However, despite the bans, the European Chemicals Agency is demanding new tests on animals for ingredients – even those used exclusively in cosmetics and ingredients with long-established safe use. Help us protect and strengthen the cosmetics animal testing bans by signing the ECI.

Did you know that the EU’s new Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability could mean millions more tests on animals?

The new Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability includes revising European chemicals laws. Its goal is a toxic-free environment. But using animal tests to fill information gaps about chemicals will just lead to even more cruel animal testing and unreliable results that will not benefit human health or our environment. Help us transform European chemicals regulation by signing the ECI.

Are you one of the 72%* of Europeans who agree that Europe needs a concrete plan to bring animal experiments to an end?

Thank you! The number of experiments on animals has not changed by much over the past decade, despite incredible advances in science and assurances from Europe’s decision-makers that their goal is to replace animal tests. In all sorts of other important policy areas that citizens care about – climate emissions, for example – the EU has set bold and ambitious targets to drive change. That’s what animals need too. Help us modernise science in the EU to phase out animal experiments by signing the ECI.

One Voice, as the French representative of Cruelty Free Europe, and the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments, is working together with all its partners and Eurogroup for Animals, HSI/Europe and PETA to end animal testing in the EU. But we need you and all your compassionate friends – a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) needs over one million valid signatures to succeed. An ECI shows the European Commission that citizens care and want change – it is a mechanism for people to demand new legislation. Thank you for making your voices – and the voices of animals in laboratories – heard.

*comresglobal.com

Corridas, Novilladas, in Beaucaire as elsewhere in the South of France, bulls die in front of children

Corridas, Novilladas, in Beaucaire as elsewhere in the South of France, bulls die in front of children
07.08.2021
Gard
Corridas, Novilladas, in Beaucaire as elsewhere in the South of France, bulls die in front of children
Exploitation for shows

Having received images of the July 25 Beaucaire novillada from whistle-blowers, we are publishing these damning images. With these photographs of these six young bulls’ last moments before being put to death by teenage bullfighters, one of these one-day spectators gave us his testimony.

The bulls die, as they always do in French arenas, in immeasurable suffering, under the cheers of their torturers and without understanding what is happening to them. Very young children attend these spectacles, which are deleterious to their psychological development, and are trained to do so. Others, barely of age, even take part in executions of extreme brutality and violence. From now on, our society should be putting up safeguards for young people, until these unjustifiable and barbaric practices are banned outright.

Investigations and images that continue to denounce these barbaric practices

We have never ceased to condemn bullfighting. From the first demonstrations in the 1990s alongside Théodore Monod, when the association was still called Aequalis and Talis, to the long partnership with Jean-Pierre Garrigues, to today, in the face of this novillada, a rite of passage for young bullfighters, which took place in Beaucaire. So, on July 25, our activists were raising public awareness with images from our investigations, both the one entitled “Bullfighters in the making”, and the 2019 one at the Nîmes bullfighting school, both conducted undercover.

And we won’t stop until it’s a thing of the past. In reality, bullfighting is torture for the animals concerned, even if legally it benefits from a “cultural” exception, and constitutes a harmful spectacle for everyone, first and foremost children, a particularly vulnerable audience.

Ennui, dégout et pitié

For this whistleblower, who was attending a show of this type for the very first time:

“Convinced that we shouldn’t allow ourselves to judge what we haven’t experienced, I took the plunge and went to the Beaucaire arena with a friend. […]

My predominant feelings could be defined as follows: boredom, disgust and pity. Pity for the animals, who were obviously wondering what they were doing there, but also pity for the spectators, who applauded with ridiculous gravity at every sword stroke that signed the agony of a young bull. Couldn’t they hear the chilling cries of pain from the animals? Didn’t they see, after the picador’s work, the gaping wounds from which blood gushed in geysers?

I remembered the aesthetic discourses of people I knew who were bullfighting enthusiasts: tragedy, beauty, philosophy. I even read up on the aesthetics of bullfighting… But all I saw was a disgusting, nauseating butchery, repeated six times at factory speed. As soon as one poor beast was killed, another would make their entrance, just as bewildered as the previous one.”

Children don’t have the reflex to protect themselves

“I was surprised to see, as soon as I arrived, the presence of children, some of them very young, with their parents. […] I thought that the emotional charge described by bullfighters was not suitable for children. I’m now convinced of it. However, what I saw was still below what I had sensed about the issue.

Barely a few minutes after the first bull entered the arena, he sent four men who were harassing him flying. Some adults hid their faces in their hands. The children received this vision in all its brutality. They had no reflex to protect themselves. What did they understand? What did they feel? I don’t know, but it questions and bothers me.

One of the bullfighters ended up in his tights on the sand, his ballet flats flying off on impact. […] It was grotesque and terrible.”

Apart from the bull, who bled to death under the sharp points of the weapons, none of the participants was seriously injured.

“Embellishing this slaughter with quasi-mystical philosophical considerations reminds me of Napoleon’s remark to Talleyrand: “Here, sir, you’re nothing but shit in a silk stocking.””

Our 2009 report is sadly still relevant.

We’ll be present again this summer at the Béziers Feria on the afternoon of August 14, alongside Colbac, our partners in FLAC. Join us!

A historic victory! No more nets, cages or hanging – the end of traditional methods of trapping songbirds!

A historic victory! No more nets, cages or hanging – the end of traditional methods of trapping songbirds!
06.08.2021
France
A historic victory! No more nets, cages or hanging – the end of traditional methods of trapping songbirds!
Wildlife

This is a great victory for songbirds killed by hanging, or trapped in small cages or hunters’ nets! Our lawyer stood alone against the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Fédération des Chasseurs at the Council of State (Conseil d’État, the highest administrative law court in France) on 8 July when the reporting judge announced: ‘Cancellation [of the decree] is inevitable.’ And the Council of State has now confirmed the judge’s findings.

Birds cruelly targeted in the Ardennes and South West France

In 24 applications at first instance (19 brought by us and five by the Ligue de Protection des Oiseaux) the Fédération Nationale des Chasseurs and the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, singing from the same hymn sheet, rejected all our claims.

One Voice was attacking every Ministerial decree issued since 2018 permitting traditional methods of killing songbirds. We were fighting tooth and nail to protect skylarks, lapwings, golden plovers, blackbirds and thrushes, in the departments of Ardennes, Gironde, Landes, Lot-et Garonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Tarn-et-Garonne.

We also applied to the courts to simply revoke the decree of 1989 permitting these methods. The decision of the Council of State represents implicit acceptance of our case.

From 2018 on, the Council of State refused to save the birds

The Council of State did not want to listen in 2018, 2019 or 2020, when we systematically brought urgent applications for the suspension of dozens of annual decrees permitting horizontal nets (pantes), small cages (matoles) and hanging (tenderies). The LPO got the same response when it applied for the suspension of the amending decree of 2018 and four decrees in 2020 in the South West.

A historic victory following on from success achieved against glue traps

This victory is the crowning achievement in a titanic struggle by our legal team. We could not just stand by after the announcement of the sixth mass extinction, with bird populations among the first victims. We won the battle against glue traps when our case led to a decision in our favour by the Court of Justice of the European Union on the ‘Birds’ Directive. And it was precisely this decision which was followed by the Council of State in finding for us on 6 August 2021 in our case against traditional methods of trapping birds.

Arielle Moreau, One Voice’s lawyer, said: « Tradition is no longer a sufficient reason to permit attacks on biodiversity. We should welcome this new recognition by the courts and hope that the same will soon be true of other traditions causing suffering to animals. »

The figures are astronomic, whatever the hunters say

The annual number of individual birds destined to be trapped or killed under these cruel conditions is astronomic (see the lists below), not counting the numbers caught in the same way by mistake, as the traps are not selective. Non-selectivity was in fact one our angles of attack against these hunting methods at the Council of State.

In South West France, over 100,000 birds die in this way every year

Every year: 38,600 skylarks were caught in Gironde, 61,600 in Landes, 4,100 in Lot-et-Garonne, 2,200 in Pyrénées-Atlantiques. And the list goes on…

DECREE CHALLENGED	PERIOD	DEPARTMENT	SPECIES	NUMBER
Decree of 24 09 2018	2018-2019	Gironde	skylarks	38600
Decree of 24 09 2018	2018-2019	Landes	skylarks	61600
Decree of 24 09 2018	2018-2019	Lot-et-Garonne	skylarks	4100
Decree of 24 09 2018	2018-2019	Pyrénées-Atlantiques	skylarks	2200
Decree of 2.09.2019	2019-2020	Gironde	skylarks	38600
Decree of 2.09.2019	2019-2020	Landes	skylarks	61600
Decree of 2.09.2019	2019-2020	Lot-et-Garonne	skylarks	4100
Decree of 2.09.2019	2019-2020	Pyrénées-Atlantiques	skylarks	2200
Decree of 27 07 2020	2020-2021	Gironde	skylarks	38600
Decree of 27 07 2020	2020-2021	Landes	skylarks	61600
Decree of 27 07 2020	2020-2021	Lot-et-Garonne	skylarks	4100
Decree of 27 07 2020	2020-2021	Pyrénées-Atlantiques	skylarks	2200

The Ardennes, where birds are hung

In the Ardennes, 5,800 thrushes and blackbirds were ‘captured’ every year by hanging. In 2018, there was permission for 200 skylarks and ten golden plovers to suffer the same fate. A few months later, the quota was multiplied, to 1,200 and 30 respectively.

We were sickened by it. The fact that permission was given for over thirty years for tens of thousands of birds to be captured, killed and eaten year after year, and that it has only now been judged unlawful, leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. It had to be brought to a final end.

Just to denounce the horror was not enough. We needed to tackle the root of the problem, using the only effective lever, while continuing to raise awareness This is a great victory for birds. A historic victory.

DECREE CHALLENGED	PERIOD	DEPARTMENT	SPECIES	NUMBER
Decree of 24 09 2018	2018-2019	Ardennes	lapwings and golden plovers	200 lapwings / 10 golden plovers
Decree of 2 11 18 amending decree of 24 09 18	2018-2019	Ardennes	lapwings and golden plovers	Change to quotas September 2018 1,200 lapwings / 30 golden plovers
Decree of 02 09 19	2019-2020	Ardennes	lapwings and golden plovers	1,200 lapwings / 30 golden plovers
Decree of 27 07 2020	2020-2021	Ardennes	lapwings and golden plovers	1,200 lapwings / 30 golden plovers
Decree of 24 09 2018	2018-2019	Ardennes	thrushes and blackbirds	5800
Decree of 02 09 19	2019-2020	Ardennes	thrushes and blackbirds	5800
Decree of 27 07 2020	2020-2021	Ardennes	thrushes and blackbirds	5800

Muriel Arnal, founding president of One Voice: « How could the Ministry for Ecology make these decrees year after year, devastating bird populations? We took cases as far as the ECJ in Luxembourg and the Council of State, with over ten urgent applications and as many cases on the merits every year. This victory has given us a real boost. No-one can hunt birds legally any more in France! If necessary, we will go back to the Council of State in September. »

If necessary, we will challenge new decrees as soon as they are promulgated. Public consultations are already under way on the website of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, for Ardennes and departments in the South West. We might ask why Barbara Pompili talks of the prohibition of glue traps as progress for biodiversity, while she has nothing to say about these other forms of hunting, which are just as cruel and deadly. Contrary to what is claimed, behind the fine words there is no political will either to safeguard biodiversity or to abolish cruelty.

Translated from the French by Jo Durning

Police custody for filming in the Sobeval calf slaughterhouse

Police custody for filming in the Sobeval calf slaughterhouse
02.08.2021
France
Police custody for filming in the Sobeval calf slaughterhouse
Fashion

After receiving a report of maltreatment, One Voice reveals videos of the biggest French luxury leather production company, specialising in calfskins: Sobeval, in the Dordogne. The investigator sent to the scene by our organisation has just come out of 36 hours in custody… For wanting to show as many people as possible what no-one ever sees: the production line where leather handbags come from which are sold for a small fortune by French luxury brands, and the animal suffering resulting from it. We are filing a complaint for maltreatment carried out by professionals for offences, duly recorded and documented.

No, our investigator will not be the scapegoat of the agri-food industry!

With this investigation, we highlight one of the problems of commitment to the laws relating to animals in France. A few weeks ago, a journalist informed us about maltreatment at Sobeval and One Voice once again decided to play the part of the whistleblower and stand in for the public services, as we often do and have done with others (L214’s investigation condemned the agony of calves for their flesh in this same slaughterhouse, with videos as evidence). It’s a disgrace.

Our investigator has just come out of custody after two exhausting nights and a day. Without causing any damage and without interfering, he filmed the Sobeval death factory line and recorded the offences for which we are filing a complaint.. In a slaughterhouse though, slaughterhouses in which Emmanuel Macron had promised to get cameras installed during his presidential campaign in 2017 to control law enforcement regarding animal maltreatment. A promise which was not kept.

Muriel Arnal, the president of One Voice, announced: « What are we supposed to do when the authorities don’t respect the feeble words of the law which exist to protect animals? Keep quiet? Let it happen? While the ones who mistreat animals can carry on without being troubled, our investigator spent 36 hours in custody. The day the law will be respected, where this cruelty is punished, then there will no longer be a need for whistleblowers. But we are still very far away from that day… »

The videos we publish are unbearable: the exhausting steps of the workers and the coldness of this industry do not care about the hundreds of individuals that it kills every day and converts into tons of carcasses. In this sector, only money reigns, at the cost of the animals put into this endless cycle, purely considered as prime and very profitable pre-materials.

The horror of French style luxury

The result of artificial insemination, born into a world with nothing natural, snatched from your mother and sent to die… In the Sobeval slaughterhouse, in the south-west, 500 to 600 babies just a few months old are killed every day.

Babies? Yes, calves. Just calves, French ones. The skin of calves, much finer and softer than that of their elders, is sold at a much higher price. It is ‘French quality’, they brag to us. The French style luxury, for fashion houses such as “Vuitton, Hermès, Chanel and LVMH”, reported Gilles Gauthier, the Managing Director of the Boulazac area. For eight years, the company has made investments to expand and the calfskins, products derived from these young bovines, will be damaged as little as possible and sold to these tanneries which supply brands that make a French style leather shop a national pride. But the underlying facts about these ‘luxury’ calfskins are not a pretty sight.

The Sobeval slaughterhouse factory, a death carousel for calves

These babies and all young bovines arrive in trucks, squashed in, sometimes injured or ill. They still have to wait for the slaughterhouse to open. At daybreak, men make them enter the slaughter line, by force if necessary, struck by some. The offences filmed for which we are going to file a complaint. Then, it is the diabolical carousel. They move forward by the hundreds in a maze-like queue with only death as the destination. Stunned or not, depending on the type of slaughter, spasms, suspended by a hoof pierced with a hook, head down, they appear to regain consciousness before their throat is slit. Blood spurts out and spreads onto the ground and everywhere around. Their skin is removed, then their body is cut methodically into pieces.

The skins are then piled up on top of one other and the first salting treatment begins. These dozens of piles, of around one metre high, from which liquids gradually trickle, remain in situ for a while before being sent elsewhere for the next stage of tanning. And one day they become a pair of gloves or shoes, a bag, the cover of a steering wheel, sports gear, the cover of a bound book…

The leather of calves is, contrary to numerous assumptions on the matter, a lucrative product, a pollutant and the result of animal suffering.

Sign our petition! We are demanding the immediate closure of this slaughterhouse which contravenes the law in many ways and we call for the luxury goods companies to turn to fashion without suffering. We are filing a complaint against Sobeval for offences committed and recorded.

Translated from the French by Sophie Martin